


Before Her

by vainProlific



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Animal Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-23
Updated: 2013-01-23
Packaged: 2017-11-26 13:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/651056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vainProlific/pseuds/vainProlific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an outing in Feferi dreambubble, Cronus understands that one doesn't hold the title of Heiress of Hellmurder Planet without being just as cruel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before Her

You had thought that you had her completely pinned down on the account of her older self being the leader of your planet: all sunshine and rainbows spouting crap about equality between social classes. And despite your detest when you entered a foreign dream bubble with memories from that godforsaken hellmurder planet of terror they called Alternia, she was the bubbly ray of light you had expected her to be greeting you with a cheerful and high (if not strident) tone. All hand-holding and warming physical contact. It was all appreciated greatly, but if you played on her hospitality and tried to get close she would somehow saunter away at the right time, the slippery eel. You couldn’t tell if she was just toying with you or if her naïveté truly ran that deep.

Unlike the Peixes you knew – dulled and bored and tired of your world – the little Alternian princess was the tide. She carried you to different places, never slowing and even you had trouble keeping up with her rapid pace. You two rode on the backs of whirlpools. You explored the caves on the shore. You played with cuttlefish and chased schools of fish and didn’t get a catch your breath, much less fix your hair. It was a tsunami of “over here, Cronus!” and “check out this fintastic shell!”

But with all the snide remarks and jabs you’d sneak in at the childish activities, you enjoyed it. You adored the little princess’ company and how your time with her made sea salt cling to your gills. You found the smell of the sea refreshing after denying its presence for so long when you were alive. Hell, for once in your lives, you actually felt a kinship between yourself another troll. Maybe being raised in Alternia would have been better for you, with its vast lands wild with life and the taste of unregulated _freedom_ it that came with it.

Or so you thought. Because like the tide, if you didn’t keep up with little Peixes and her expectations, she’d crash your body against the ragged rocks and sweep you away to drown.

You both had been done swimming around memories for the night until a small comment sent Feferi jumping up from her pile of soft seaweed on the beach and dragging you back into the ocean. “I can’t believe you’ve never needed to hunt!” she nagged at you. Apparently your alternate self (little brat that he was) was infatuated with his ancestor. He practically memorized books of his exploits around the galaxy. Being his formal moirail, she told you of all the excruciatingly long nights he'd prattle on to her about his battles and heists and other boring pirate stuff. You had no interest in it; he sounded like a brute. Nothing comparable to the artistic person you are. However, that passionate spirit didn't dissuade her from bringing you along when it was about time to go hunting for her mother's next meal.

It wasn't as if violence was foreign to you, as soft as a guy as you were. You were Cronus fucking Ampora; one of the most powerful former wizards on your planet. You managed to survive a one-sided battle with the biggest bastard himself as a _grub_ – and shit, not only did you survive that, you came out virtually unscathed.

But that was the past; though you did not drabble in wizardry in the slightest these days, you were still a forced to be reckoned with. This little missy needed to remember that instead of thinking everyone bred from your peace-loving planet were a bunch of spineless cowards. Fucking disrespectful.

That’s at least what you had built in your head that whole time, raising both your confidence and your conceptual ability level. You two dived back into the black, rolling waves of the bitter ocean and within minutes she had swam after the first flash of white she spotted. She threw her trident and scored a direct hit; the whole head of it harpooned through a whale’s fin. It cried out as its violet blood mixed with the water and crashed onto the sand and kelp, upturning rocks and scattering small frightened shell-beasts away.

Your stomach churned at the realization that this wasn’t an ordinary marine creature, but a custodian. To anyone of lower blood color on the hemospectrum, your planet's law would have you two guilty of a serious felony punishable by a rustblood's lifetime of imprisonment, skipping even the sentence of culling. Even in hunting accidents like this.

Feferi grinned with all the glee of a wriggler given their first perigee present, and swam over to stand on the back of her prize with delight. You found yourself frozen in place, staring at the bleeding lusus and registering that this blow was not a mistake.

“Not a bad catch this time!” she congratulated to herself aloud. You flinched as the hooked trident viciously tore the flesh away when she pulled it out of the fin, the hole being left even more gaping The whale-lusus whistled on an ear-splitting frequency that made the loose sand beneath your feet shake. Feferi turned to you again. Of course she could not forget her guest she was showing the ropes to. That she looked at for a moment in hesitation and analyzed with the instincts of a predator. Sniffing out pity for the creature like a shark for blood. Pity, and fear.

“Now, finish it off.”

It caught you for a surprise. “What?!” You stopped, caught off guard, but resumed your cool demeanor as you sauntered up to the half-dead corpse. You crossed your arms over your chest in displeasure, and tilted your head to look at the colossal lump of white body with faux disinterest. “Uh. Shouldn’t you have the final blow, as some kind of victory thing, princess?”

Feferi snorted as if you told the best joke she had ever heard. She saw through your transparency with ease and the attempt made her smile that barracuda grin of hers. Only now did it render from cheery to downright bloodthirsty.

“What? No! Where would you get that idea?” she swam off of the whale’s fin and floated by you, satisfied that her former prey wasn’t going anywhere for a while. “I want _you_ to finish it off.”

It may have been just you, but something about the sudden condescension of her voice resembled the true nature of hellmurder planet.

Your chest seized up. This was wrong. It was just a whale. But looking at it, it was a lusus with some grub that needed it somewhere. The most your planet fooled with violence was in the black quadrant – which was near taboo on your planet – and you trying to off an old man in a pointed hat. But that guy, as much of a bastard as he was, was a highly esteemed sorcerer. Capable of looking to pick a fight and defend himself. Animals, on the other hand, especially a wriggler’s custodian. That was entirely different

As much as you felt for that dying creature, and as much as you wished it could have gone another way. You could tell that if you didn’t give the final blow, the smug little harpy next to you would. You tried to shrug it off one last time, to see if you could reverse this game of cluckbeast she was playing with you. “Not my jazz thing, sweet fins. I’m too soft and poetic for that kind-a thing, you get me?”

She scoffed. “Come on, _Orphaner_ ,” she pushed, nearly mocking with her lips curling to a smile, deadly and all thread behind her words. “It’s just a lusus. And Gl'bgolyb demands a meal.”

She swam around you, her black locks trailing behind her path as a weird void sucking up all moonlight that shone through the dark sea. She rested her petite hands on your shoulders. “Besides,” her painted lips cooed into your fins, all low and sweet and as if she was about to rip a bite out of you if you didn’t obey. “It’s going to die of blood loss, or be eaten alive by scavengers.” Her voice grew harsh. “So stop floundering and give it a quick death.”

You gulped. You took a moment to shut your eyes and compose yourself, to think… why would you show mercy to a pathetic creature anyway? It was lower than you just like every landdwelling shitblood on your planet was. You, Cronus Ampora, would not be showed up by a prepubescent heiress waiting for you to fail such a meager task.

In one swoop you took Ahab’s Crosshairs from your sylladex and fired for the creature’s eye. It thrashed a final time and stopped twitching completely when the sand and blood cleared.

Feferi besides you hummed in delight and swam away in the opposite direction, no doubt expecting you to follow her shortly. You couldn’t move. Your hand clenched around the trigger until your knuckles turned white and you felt your muscles having little spasms all around your body. From the sudden adrenaline. From the kill of a lusus. And not only a lusus, but whatever wriggler was in its protection. How it’ll probably die slowly from starvation or, knowing this planet, will be eaten by some monstrous beast.

If you hadn’t already been blown up, you would feel very much dead inside.


End file.
